You Got Your AP Scores Back! What Now?

While July may just seem like another month of summer, it starts with a bang -- AP Exam scores. Today we’ll be talking about interpreting AP Exam results! Whether this is your first or fourth set of exam results, we’re here to walk you through what scores mean, and what’s next!

The College Board released scores for the 2024 AP (Advanced Placement) Exams last week (first week of July)! For some context, students will receive a score of 1-5 on each exam. A score of 3 or higher is considered a passing score by the College Board (though this may vary from university to university).

A recap on what the use of AP Exams are:

• Some colleges will accept an AP Exam score (varies between 3, 4, or a 5)

• They will allow you to use certain AP Exams to “test-out” or get college credit for certain classes

• For example at the University of Southern California:

  • a student who got a 5 on the AP Spanish exam can fulfill their foreign language requirement (which would normally require 3 college classes)

  • a student who got a 4 on the AP Microeconomics exam can fulfill a general education requirement AND skip “Introduction to Microeconomics,” allowing them to take “Intermediate Microeconomics” instead

So, what does your score mean? A quick reminder that your score on an AP Exam will not hurt your GPA, so if you do poorly, it’s okay!

If you got a 1 or 2:

• Reflect on the exam! What worked, what didn’t work, how can you adjust your study habits going forward

• Do you think your score was a reflection of your understanding, or was there a larger, structural issue with how you studied?

• Consider retaking the exam or class! If you just had a bad testing day, that’s okay! Many schools will allow a student to “independent study” for an AP Exam, and retake it.

• Contemplate whether or not AP Classes are for you! Sometimes the accelerated pace is too fast. That is okay! Don’t force yourself into something that will ruin your GPA

• Talk to your tutor! Ask for an outside opinion about what can be adjusted for future classes
  

If you got a 3:

• You passed! Did you like the content of the class? How it was taught? If it was a humanities class (AP Psychology, AP Human Geography, AP World History, etc.), are you interested in taking more? If it was a STEM class (AP Calculus, AP Biology, etc.), were you happy, or do you want to try taking more humanities classes?

• What part of the exam worked for you? Do you need more multiple-choice practice going forward, were the essay questions hard?

If you got a 4 or a 5:

• Great job! When planning future classes, think about what helped you study, and how you can recreate that in future classes

• Start researching if schools you are interested in will accept those credits

All in all, a score on the AP Exam does not reflect how much you learned or your academic intelligence. However, the score is an indicator of how you perform on standardized tests, and can be a good metric to learn and improve! RRA is here to serve as a guide and advisor in this process as well. See you all next week for our next newsletter.